Nike is not just a shoe company
by currierbell
Summary: Post TC, pre-BOL. Athena summons her daughter and her daughter's friends for an unorthodox quest. Must know how to play poker for ch. 3. Rated T for suicide. Not telling who.
1. My Mom Asks Me to Find Her Shoes

As the goddess of wisdom and battle, my mom had much more important things to do than pull her daughter out of school. So I was a bit worried when they paged me to the office of Fitzgerald Middle, along with my friends Alyson and Olivia. I knew it could only be one thing: demigod stuff. See, I am a half-blood; half-human and half Greek god. Or, in my case, goddess. My mother is Athena, goddess of wisdom, battle, and crafts. Ally and Olivia are demigoddesses too. Ally is the daughter of Hades, god of the Underworld. Olivia is the daughter of Poseidon, god of the sea. There's an oath that the "Big Three" - Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades - made after World War II that technically means Ally and Olivia shouldn't be alive. They agreed not to have any more kids. But Ally was really born millions of years ago: she just is reborn every time she dies. Same with Olivia. It makes them powerful, but not able to be manipulated with the prophecy and Kronos and all that.

"Cassie DeGregorio, Alyson Ferguson, and Olivia Mallet, would you come to the 6th-grade office please?"

We looked at each other with a little fear in our eyes. If we were all three called together, then it was important. Slowly, we got out of our seats and made our way from the science lab to the front office. Had there been an attack? Had Olympus been taken over? Was someone we knew dead? I thought of my half-sister Annabeth, Olivia's half-brother Percy, Ally's half-brother Nico. Were they in trouble?

When we got to the office, I saw someone I immediately recognized. I knew the curly brown hair, the shape of the face, the alertness in the eyes; I saw them every morning when I looked in the mirror. The only difference was that her eyes were a piercing gray, while mine were my father's green. This was my mother. Athena, the goddess of wisdom. "Hello, Cassie," she greeted me warmly. For the sake of the secretaries, she didn't say anything about why she was there. "I'll be taking them now," she informed them. "Is that okay?"

"Sure," they replied. They didn't really care. We got into my mom's car, or what I thought was her car; a Prius Hybrid. She said nothing until Ally prompted, "Why are we here?" Ally was straight and to the point, always.

"I need your help," she told us. Whoa. The goddess of wisdom needed _our _help? If Athena was seeking out Ally and Olivia and I...had things really gotten this bad? She continued, "I would do this myself, but I'm busy. I can't...well, Chiron will explain everything."

Chiron? She was taking us to camp? We lived in Florida. How would we get to New York? As if answering my question, Athena drove down an old, abandoned alleyway and stopped. She looked around. "Good," she remarked, "no Cyclopes. They like these areas. I'll call him now." Whoever she was calling, she didn't take out a phone. She lifted her hand and said in Ancient Greek, "Stop, Chariot of Damnation!"

Calling the Gray Sisters Taxi? Did she always have to be so cryptic? I wanted answers, and I wanted them now. She saw my expression and smiled. "So much like me, Cassie," she crooned. "You'll know in good time." Suddenly, a plane came soaring out of the sky. It landed, somehow, right beside us. I couldn't see the cockpit, but I had a feeling that there were three women in the front, fighting over who got their eye. We embarked on the plane, a little confounded. My mom wasn't usually like this. Usually, she would tell people things. Unless...well, unless it was something awful. Something we shouldn't know. I trembled with fear. Ally saw me shiver, just a bit, and leaned over and whispered, "Feathers!"

We have these little inside jokes. All best friends have them, you know. If you've read _Breaking Dawn,_ you know what we mean by feathers. I wished I had it with me on the flight. It was two hours of boredom mixed with terror. I had no idea, no clue as to what this could be. We made some idle small talk on the plane, just middle-school-girl stuff, but that didn't last long. The plane was a small one, with only one class: coach. We didn't even get to order beverages. I'd flown plenty of times before, but that was on commercial planes, where you were surrounded by crying babies and old men on laptops. This was a new aura, and I preferred the old one. My dad loved traveling, so we flew a lot. He said travel was the greatest teacher. I sometimes thought that was why Athena fell in love with him. My "normal" family flew with me - my stepmom, my dad and my sister. Annie was nine years old. Technically, I had two sisters. But one had died at birth. When my mom gave birth to me, my stepmom was six months along. So Athena kept me on Mount Olympus for two and a half months. Then my half-sister, Meagan, was born. She died instantly, and was replaced by me. The Mist covered this whole thing up; the nurses just thought I had gone into cardiac arrest.

Well, anyways. We soon landed, right outside the camp boundaries. My mom went up to the cockpit and handed the pilots a stack of golden drachmas, and thanked them in Ancient Greek. As we crossed the boundary, Chiron wheeled himself out to meet us. "Cassie," he greeted me. "Alyson. Olivia." I wondered how he knew our names: none of us had ever been to camp. I had to stay with my "real" family, since my stepmom didn't know anything about my other life, and neither did my dad really. The same with Ally, since she'd been born to a different family than her original one. Olivia...well, I didn't know that much about Olivia. I'd only met her recently, whereas Ally and I had gone to elementary school together. I did know, however, that Olivia hadn't been to camp. "Athena has told me about you," he read my mind. "She wanted you to consult the Oracle. You see, demigods, you are going on a quest."

Ally, Olivia and I looked at each other. A quest? We had little to no formal training between us. We were powerful, true, but...a quest? Chiron kept going, oblivious to our little wordless communication. "In any contest, any challenge, there is always a victory. As there will be in this war. The fate of this war rests in the hands of one immortal: Nike, goddess of victory."

Ally burst out laughing. "You mean the shoe company?" She turned her sneaker to one side, displaying the curved check mark that was the symbol of Nike. I punched her on the shoulder.

"Stupid," I scoffed. "Nike is the goddess of victory. The shoe company was named _after _her."

Chiron nodded. "Are you quite finished?" he demanded. We nodded meekly. "Your quest is to find Nike."

The daughter of Athena said something exceedingly profound like, "Okay..."

Chiron adjusted his hooves in the wheelchair. "My dear Cassady," he lectured, "surely you would know where to find her?"

If he thought I knew...but wait. It couldn't be _that _obvious, could it? "In a Nike shoe store?" I .

Chiron nodded. "This one will be very helpful," he remarked to my mom. I felt like saying, _Hello? I'm standing right here_, but he was complimenting me, so I let him finish. "Not exactly. Do you remember who Nike's father was, in the myths?"

I thought for a second. I knew a lot of Greek myths, considering my heritage and all that, but Nike's father kind of drew a blank in my mind. "Um...Kronos?" I supposed, knowing I was almost certainly

He shook his head. "No. Styx, the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, and Pallas, the son of Crius and Eurybia, were her parents. Styx has recently retreated to the Underworld, where she lives as the guardian of the River Styx."

Ally huffed. "And those are who, exactly? And they are going to help us how, exactly?"

I nudged Ally, trying to get her to shut up. But you can't shut up Ally. Chiron gave her a stern glance. "You must journey to the Underworld, young half-bloods, and find Styx. She will help you, I am certain. She was devout to our cause in the first war, and I am sure she will do likewise in this one. Once you find Nike, you must convince her to our cause."

I looked to Ally and Olivia. They shrugged. "Sure," I agreed.

Chiron looked to Athena, seeming to say _what'd I tell you?_ "Okay," he instructed. "Now you must consult the Oracle."


	2. We Are Helped By A Mummy and A Horse

Chapter 2

Chiron asked that we consult the Oracle. It was apparently customary before a quest. We all three timidly entered the dusty, dry room. It was filled with memorabilia from previous quests, such as the scarf my sister Annabeth had taken from Percy. The mummy just creeped me out. She looked like she was about to disintegrate any second. She was wrapped in linen tissue and you could hear a cracking noise whenever she twitched. I wondered if I should talk to her. Well, if I didn't, I knew Ally and Olivia wouldn't. "Um, excuse me?" I spoke up. "We're supposed to talk to you...about our quest?"

She became still, still as stone. Then she spoke in an eerie voice that sent invisible spiders down my spine.

_The decider of victory is who you must seek,  
With you, the traitor, and the secretly weak.  
The binder of oath is by whom you set store,  
But all is not like it was before.  
If you fail, you cannot let live  
Remember the help that above cannot give._

Immediately I pulled out my notebook and scribbled it down in my elegant handwriting. "And that's all?" I clarified.

Ally punched my shoulder. "You're such a nerd, Cassie."

The mummy remained motionless. I sighed and circled two phrases_: decider of victory _and _binder of oath_. "This must be Nike and Styx," I said to no one. Ally gave me a blank look. Olivia rolled her eyes.

"This whole quest is stupid! It's impossible to convince Nike!" Olivia burst out suddenly. I gave her a look, like, _Be nice and I won't kick your butt later, _but Ally interrupted me.

"Maybe," Ally started, grabbing my pencil and circling the fifth line, "that's what this means. If we fail to convince her, we can't let her live."

I shook my head. "It's impossible to kill a goddess."

Ally slammed my pen down. "Then what happened to the other two Gorgons? The two Hundred-Handed Ones? What happened to Pan?"

"That was different. No one believed in them anymore, so they faded. Mortals still strongly believe in victory."

Olivia studied my copy of the prophecy. "Well, what about the last line? _Remember the help that above cannot give_? Maybe that means someone will help us."

I sighed and stuffed the notebook and the pen back into my pocket. "Come on, let's go. I'm bored anyway." When we came out I handed my transcript of the prophecy to Chiron. He examined it and nodded gravely.

"I have some weapons for you, young demigods," he informed us. A big guy handed us each a sword. He was really tall and heavy, and he stood kind of to one leg. I was sure he was from the Hephaestus cabin. Mine was huge, straight and pointed and blinding me where the light reflected. But it didn't seem too weighty to me; I could lift it easily. Olivia had a large, ornate shield. It was beautiful. It had little carvings of fish and waves and horses and tridents. Ally had a little dagger, sharpened to perfection but a bit small. "Yours, Cassie," Chiron told me, "is modeled after your mother's Aegis, and takes the same name. Olivia. Your shield is called Protastis, the protector. Alyson. Your dagger is called Poniros."

"Tricky," Ally translated.

Chiron nodded. "Yes, that's exactly right. Now, it is good we have you, Alyson. Your father's domain will be available to us." I gulped. "You will start your journey presently."


	3. We Play Poker In the Land of Dead People

Chapter 3

**_Ally's POV_ **

Since I'm the daughter of Hades, I shouldn't say this. But going on a plane scared me a little. Logically, I knew there was no way Zeus would kill his favorite daughter (Athena), and his favorite daughter's daughter (stupid Cassie). Still, something about being in the sky made me shiver a little. It was, however, the fastest way to get to Los Angeles. LAX - the Los Angeles airport - was confusingly laid out and crowded. We made our way through the madness, staying close by each other's sides. I had been to LAX hundreds of times. Hell was my summer home, after all. Sometimes I even got to help Daddy torture the people condemned to eternal pain. It was fun!!!!!

My cousin Athena and I led Cass and Livvy through the streets, finally finding the flickering entrance to the Underworld. I could only see it half the time, being a half-blood. I could only see through the Mist some of the time. Sometimes people looked like mythical monsters, and then when I looked back they were regular people. It was too much for my mind. Livvy or Cassie probably could have explained it, but they'd probably use too many big words. Stupid nerds.

Charon started to object as we walked right in, but I looked at him. He looked straight into my eyes, which I've been told is disconcerting. Cass says if you look straight into my eyes, you'll see fire dancing around the pupil. Charon stuttered, "Go r-r-r-right on in, Al-al-alyson." Athena hesitated at the door. I waved her in, but she shook her head.

"It would be unwise for a daughter of Zeus to enter the territory of Hades," she elucidated. "Though I get along with Hades, he is an unkind and unforgiving god. I don't wish to anger him." These insults stung a little, but I was used to it. Hades had a bad rep. Daddy was always nice to me though...unless I walked in on him and Persephone. THAT was a mistake to make only once. Athena hugged Cassie. "Good-bye, my brave daughter. We can only hope I have misinterpreted the prophecy." With these cryptic words, she left us. I took Cassie and Olivia through my summer home. I was willing to bet this was why Athena had brought me on the quest: I could find the River Styx with my eyes closed. Standing on the riverbanks was a frail woman. She looked a bit like a nymph, except she looked a bit more...human. She didn't really float over the land in the weird nymph walk. She also seemed a bit more...solid. To me, nymphs looked a bit like ghosts.

Ghosts. The word brought back memories. I shuddered involuntarily. _Stop it, _I told myself. _You promised not to think about that. _

Yeah, well, as I had recently prove, I wasn't so good at keeping my promises.

I needed to focus on the task at hand. "Um, excuse me?" I said to the fragile spirit. She turned around, and her eyes startled me. They had such a fierce look in them...like she wanted to tear apart everything in the world, one piece at a time. Like she wanted to destroy the world, break it down brick by brick. And they said _my _eyes were scary. These eyes had seen hatred.

"What can I do for you?" she asked sadly. Her tone didn't exactly match her eyes. Her eyes. Something in them reminded me of the look Luke got when he talked about Olympus. That incredibly hot look...

_STOP THINKING LIKE THAT! _I yelled at myself. I took a deep breath to steady myself. "Uh, would you happen to know where we could find your daughter? Nike?"

I whispered to Cassie, "You're answering the next question." Just because this was my home turf didn't mean I had to do _all _the work.

"Why do you seek Nike? Seeking Nike leads to nothing. Her decisions are never swayed." I couldn't look away from that horrible hatred in her eyes.

Cassie stood a little taller. "We just wanted to know what that decision was. We just need to find her." Go nerdiness!

Styx sat down, looking weary. "It is easy enough to summon the goddess of victory. She grants victory in any contest or battle. All you must do is have an opponent."

Livvy caught sight of my expression. "Ally, why are you smiling?"

"Because," I explained, "I can finally sit in on Daddy's poker nights."

We made our way to the very heart of the Underworld. Cassie shuddered at some of the tortures we made people go through. I was used to it all. I'd had millions of years to be used to it all. Still, sometimes it made a little shiver go down my spine. Some of the torture Daddy thought up were just a bit harsh. But the way I saw it, they deserved it, right? That's what Daddy told me, and I believed him. Sometimes, though, it got to me, when I heard their wild cries of undiluted pain. It made me nervous - if ever Daddy couldn't bring me back to life, would the tables be turned? Would _I _have to endure these tortures? _Well, probably,_ that annoying voice spoke up, _considering what you did recently..._

_OH WOULD YOU JUST SHUT UP ALREADY! WE'RE TRYING NOT TO THINK ABOUT THAT REMEMBER????_

Well anyways. I led them to Daddy's throne room. Cassie gasped when she saw Daddy's throne. It was pretty awesome. It was entirely black, rimmed with gold, and on it sat my father. Tall, powerful, commanding, and more than a little frightening...I could see where I got a lot of my traits. I nudged Livvy and whispered from the corner of my mouth, "Kneel." They did so, probably just trying to avert their eyes from his. In his eyes, there was fire, much more noticeable than mine. When you looked at me, if you weren't looking closely, you could miss it altogether. With him, it was the first thing you saw. I stared into the flames, trying to show him I wasn't afraid. Daddy hated cowardice. "Daddy," I addressed him, "we wanted to ask you something." He stared me down, but nodded, as if to say, _Go on._ "We need some way to summon the goddess of victory and talk to her. We would like to compete in the poker nights."

Suddenly it dawned on me how ridiculous this was. _O wise goddess of victory, we beseech you to grant us with your presence at a casino night? _I stifled the urge to giggle. My serious expression flexed though. Daddy leaned back in his throne and stared up at the heavens - quite literally, in fact. After a moment, he cracked a smile. "If it pleases you," he said, "we'll deal you in."

That's how later that night I ended up with my two best friends, sitting around the table with an odd cast of characters. Minos, the old king of Crete and a favorite of my father's. He had reigned as a judge for almost two thousand years. Charon, the transporter of the dead across the River Styx, who had a bit of an unhealthy obsession with money. Hermes, the god of luck, and Tyche, the goddess of luck. Finally Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory. Mnemosyne almost always won. That didn't matter to Cassie, Livvy and I. We just need _a _win, not for us to win. Charon dealt, because he was afraid anyone else would cheat him, and we all antyed one drachma. It was your typical five-card stud, only the cards had Zeus for king, Hera for queen, and Hermes for jack. Instead of aces, they were called alphas. I had a pretty suckish hand the first round - a pair of sixes. You'll never win on a low pair, so I folded after the draw yielded nothing. Mnemosyne took the pot with two pair - Alphas and Hermes. I lost only one drachma. Daddy had given me ten, and Cass and Livvy only got five. Round two. I got three sevens, but I think I gave it away - I didn't have a very good poker face. Tyche bluffed and got me to fold - it turned out she only had a pair of fours. I felt stupid. I'd lost all but three of my drachmas. I needed a better hand this time. Round three, no pair, not even with the draw, so I folded immediately. Down to two drachmas. I needed a whole lot of luck. I could never be sure, but I thought that just before the fifth round, Tyche winked at me. Round four I got four hearts, no straight but a one-in-four chance for a flush. What the heck, I thought, and I threw away the club. I got a spade back. Shoot. So the fifth and final round, I had one drachma left, and Daddy gave me some chips in case I wanted to bet more than my anty. I didn't think he expected much of us. Cass and Livvy were both already in the negatives. I was dealt three eights, a Zeus, and a ten. Something, I wasn't quite sure, but something told me to throw away one eight, a Zeus, and a ten.

_Yeah. Probably the same thing that told you to..._

SHUT UP! Concentrate on the poker game! Hades gave me a condescending smile. I took a deep breath and laid the eight, Zeus and ten on the table. "Three."

Charon wittily dealt three cards to me. I picked them up and couldn't believe it. Three. Alphas. Dead man's hand - three aces, two eights.

I kept my cool, kept my expression a poker face. We went around the table to me. "Raise, call or fold?" Charon asked.

I took another deep breath (I'd been taking a lot of those lately) and said, "Raise." I put in one chip. We repeated this three times. No one was folding, but we had twenty-seven chips in the pot now. When Charon came back to me, I announced, "Call."

Daddy laid down a pathetic pair of Hermes, as did Hermes himself. Tyche had an Alpha-Zeus-Hera-Hermes-Ten straight, but she was no match for me. Mnemosyne had a pair of Zeus. Cass had a flush in clubs, and Livvy had no pair. I smirked and laid my dead man's hand on the table. "Read 'em and weep," I shrieked as I collected the entire pot. I took out the chips. Daddy glared at me.

"This is why I never let you play," he grumbled.


	4. The Goddess of Victory wants Dead Cows

**Ally's POV**

Stupid Athena, going and being right. There was a definite first. Just as I won, I saw a little flutter of a person just above my head. "Wait!" Livvy called to it. I could swear I heard a barely inaudible sigh. The figure re-materialized, and I gasped.

Now, when the Underworld is your summer home, you see basically everything. I've met every Olympian god and some non-Olympians. I'm pretty used to them being a bit weird. Daddy is the only normal one. But when the goddess of victory materialized, I kind of freaked a little. Nike _was _freaky. She was wearing an outfit that made her look like she had just come to from the gym. She had those soft thingies on her ankles and a headband, and sweat pants. She had brown hair that was streaked with sweat, and sage-looking emerald eyes. The expression in her eyes didn't seem to match her - like mother, like daughter I guess. Her eyes were wise. She looked like the kind of person who would consider every aspect of a conflict before choosing a side. Thoughtful and intelligent. Cassie cleared her throat. "Excuse me, Nike," she began politely. "Could we talk to you alone?"

She glared at Cassie, narrowing those perceptive eyes. "Why?"

Nike was taking this better than we had hoped. I was kind of bored. My mind wandered to what Luke had asked me to do the last time I saw him. Of course it was hard to concentrate on what he had been saying, since he wasn't saying he loved me like he usually promised.

_"Please, Alyson," he had begged. "Don't you want your father to rise to power? Don't you want to help me?" His liquid eyes pleaded with me. I could have gazed into them for hours ordinarily, but now there was so much to think about. I looked away._

_"Of course I do. Of course. It's just..." I couldn't meet his eyes. _

_He stared at me so long I was forced to look back. "Lyssie, are you getting cold feet?"_

_I smiled flirtatiously. "Isn't that usually reserved for weddings?"_

_He laughed. "It can be if you want."_

_I sighed wistfully. "I doubt we'll live that long."_

_Luke's ice blue eyes turned serious. "Alyson, you've got to help me. You could save us."_

_I traced his scar with my finger. I had always loved how his skin was so soft under my hand. I took a deep breath and gave my answer._

My mind returned to the conversation at hand. Cassie was explaining our problem to Nike. "We wanted to ask you something a little bit more private."

Her eyes narrowed even further. "Hephaestus-Cam didn't catch me and...never mind." She followed Cass, Livvy and me as I led her down into a small nook of the Underworld. I knew all of them. There were infinite secret places in the Underworld, where we could have a conversation without any chance of being overheard. "What is it that you wish for?"

Cassie took a deep breath. "We need you to grant victory to the gods in the upcoming Titan war."

Nike slumped. "What is it with you mortals? You never pray to me or sacrifice to me, but then when I don't favor you, you get so annoyed! Well I'm the one who should be annoyed. I never get _nothing _from you. I say NO!"

Livvy tried to backtrack. "Aren't you a friend of Athena? Don't you know what this will do to her? Do you want your friend imprisoned forever in the torturous pits of Tartarus?" She looked over her shoulder, the opposite direction of Tartarus, but the meaning was clear. "_You _are a goddess, my friend. They will tear you apart piece by piece and throw you into a chasm to linger forever in eternal pain."

"They certainly will not," she denied. "Not if I granted victory to them. Then they would honor me as a queen and force mortals to sacrifice to me forever. It would be a wonderful thing if I gave victory to them. But no, if I give victory to the Olympians, they'll only say it was a debt I owed to Athena and will shrug me off like a pesky fly."

"No they wouldn't!" Livvy shouted.

Nike laughed maliciously. "You, three mortals, are going to convince the mighty Zeus?"

"We're demigods," Livvy corrected, "and he's my uncle."

"And mine," I added. Nike looked from Livvy's black hair and ocean-blue eyes to my darker skin and hair and fiery eyes. "Daughter of Hades, and daughter of Poseidon," I clarified. She nodded.

"My verdict remains the same!" Nike announced. "I will grant victory to the Titans."

"But Nike!" Livvy called, but it was to no avail. She shimmered and faded, finally disappearing altogether and leaving us in the black darkness.

Cassie sat down on the ground. Inwardly, I breathed a sigh of relief. This was wonderful! I couldn't wait until I told Luke. He would...but that's another story. I couldn't think of that right now. I needed to concentrate.

"What can we do now?" Cassie asked herself. She unrolled the prophecy and read it aloud, circling the last two lines.

_If you fail, you cannot let live  
Remember the help that above cannot give_

"And that means what?" Livvy demanded. Cass didn't answer for a while. She just sat there, staring at the piece of paper she held.

"Remember the help that above cannot give," Cassie murmured. "Well, we could try to talk this out. Um...remember the help that above cannot give. Well, if above can't give it, it's got to come from..."

"Lower," Livvy suggested. "Less."

"Under. Beneath. Underneath. Er..." Cassie seemed to be at a loss. "Not above, but under. Not above, but lower. Not above, but..." She sighed and threw the paper up in the air. "This isn't working." Olivia and I muttered our agreement. "Let's try to figure out what above is, and think about what they can't give."

"Mount Olympus," Livvy answered automatically. We all looked at her. "Well, it's above, isn't it?"

Cassie shrugged. "Okay, let's go with that. What help can they not give?"

"Well, obviously they can't convince Nike," Livvy said, "or we wouldn't be here."

"But who _can _give it?" Cass wondered out loud. No one answered. "They're gods. If they can't, who can?"

"Maybe it's a god who's not on Mount Olympus," I led them. "Like..."

"Like your dad," Cassie whispered. The dark room seemed to grow even darker.

I pretended for Luke. I acted like I didn't know what they were talking about. "He couldn't help us," I stated without much conviction. "Could he?"

Livvy sighed and stood up. "Well, let's ask him," she directed. So away we went.


	5. We Blow on Ice and Steal a Box

**Olivia's POV**

There are some things about me that I never knew anyone could tell. Like the way Zeus scares me more than Hades. The way sometimes I regret everything. The way that some days, I wish I could die. Especially that day. I really wanted to die that day.

Well anyways. So like I said, Hades really doesn't scare me all that much. It's not as though he has a lot of power over me, since I was made immortal. I also have that deal with him...but that's another story. Still, I wasn't looking forward to asking him for help. I had a feeling he wouldn't anyway, but it was worth a shot, right? Right. You don't answer me. I do. SHUT UP!

Oh yeah, and I talk to myself. No I'm not crazy. I'm just...what's another word for schizophrenic/bipolar/ADD/dyslexic?

There's the ADD acting up again. Focus, Livvy. Focus. We approached Hades while he was on his throne, and Cass and I bowed. He frowned and sighed. "Haven't you bothered me enough for one day, young demigods?"

My voice was steady. "I would hardly call it bothering, Uncle, if it could save Olympus."

He turned the eyes of fire on me. "Olympus?" he repeated. Too late I realized my mistake.

"The gods," I hastened to correct. "Not Olympus, Lord of the Dead. All gods. Even those not on Mount Olympus." Could I sound like any more of an idiot? Probably. I shouldn't try.

"We want to know if there is any way to cut an immortal's thread," Cassie asked.

Hades shook his head. "You mortals are foolish," he announced in his sonic-boom voice.

"I'm not mortal, Daddy," Ally interrupted. He silenced her with one look.

"Coming in here, thinking just because you have my daughter you can do whatever you like. Has it ever occurred to you, half-bloods, that perhaps we are not on the same side? Perhaps we are not working for the same cause? Perhaps I will _not _help you?" He stood up from his throne. "Perhaps I am a loyal son. Perhaps I stand by my father, and my...nephew."

"Luke," Cassie snarled. "You would help Luke? He doesn't care about anything but bloodshed and terror. He knows nothing of loyalty."

He fixated Cassie with his eyes, and I could see her shudder as she looked deep into the dancing flames. "Don't make an immortal enemy, daughter of the Gray-Eyed One. It is an unpleasant and unfamiliar experience." He exited with a dramatic flair. Stupid god of the dead. What a drama queen.

I looked over at my companions. Ally was staring at her father, looking confused and hurt. I heard her mumbling something about betrayal. I felt kind of bad. If my father...well, it wasn't exactly the same, so I couldn't empathize. But I could sympathize, and that had to be terrible. Cassie was...smiling? Why was she smiling?

Well, duh. She'd figured something out. Solving problems is one of the only things that make Cass happy. "What did you find out, Cass?" I asked a bit warily.

"He just as good as told us we can do it," she stated. She pulled out that dorky notepad of hers that she carries everywhere. I really mean she carries it everywhere. Well, she brought it to the Underworld, so what can you expect? After some fast and furious scribbling, she held it up triumphantly.

_Don't make an immortal enemy, daughter of the Gray-Eyed One. It is an unpleasant and unfamiliar experience._

I shook my head like a wet dog, confused. "What does that mean?"

"It means," she explained, "Nike's not immortal."

"She has to be," I countered. "She's a goddess."

"I didn't say she wasn't," Cassie retorted. "I said she wasn't immortal. He told us there was a way."

"So..." I let the word trail off and hang in the air. We both looked at Ally. "Alyson!" I demanded. "Is there anything that can cut through the threads of the immortals?"

She shrugged. My hopes fell to the ground and smash to pieces. "Well, why don't you tell me," she suggested. "I'll show you the control room."

I've already explained that Hades doesn't scare me. However, the Underworld does. For the life of me, I can't understand how _anyone _would be able to navigate through the maze of tunnels, getting deeper and deeper and darker and darker. Ally has lived here for thousands of years, so I guess she must think of it as home sweet home. Me? I think I'd rather take my chances with the Labyrinth. Believe me, I speak from personal experience. The Labyrinth is not half as bad as the underground, pitch-black cavern with hundreds of secret passageways. Logically, the Underworld shouldn't be this big. I've seen some tourist maps of it (don't ask). The rivers meet at the gate, guarded by Cerberus and presided over by the judges of the dead. Charon runs the souls on a ferry over the River Acheron. The Elysian Fields is far to the southeast of the River Styx. Tartarus is south of all the rivers. The Field of Punishment is to the southwest of all the rivers. Erebus is...somewhere. They've changed the layout a little over time.

Back up. Erebus. The deepest, darkest corner of the Underworld and destroyer of everything. What if...what if we threw the string into Erebus? Could that work? I asked Ally.

She shook her head. "You're close," she commended. "I had a different idea, though. If you try to light anything in Erebus, it disappears. Goes up in smoke, quite literally." She cracked a wry smile. "So there has to be somewhere it goes. Some place. What if we asked the people in the control room?"

"The who?" I inquired.

"The people who make the threads." Ally looked a bit smug. "They're my buddies. What if we asked them to look for the fire? To capture it?"

"You mean...Erebian fire?" The word vaguely surfaced in my memory. I seemed to recall hearing it a long time ago.

Ally nodded. "Yeah. Sure. That."

I laughed a little, in spite of myself. Ally was so stupid. "I think I know how to make it," Ally said slowly, as if she was trying hard to grasp something in her memory. "We stand in Erebus and light a fire. Then one of us has to catch it."

"Not it," I announced speedily.

"Not it," Ally followed. We both looked at Cassie, who was examining her cuticles.

"Huh? What? Me?" She sighed. "Oh, fine. I know the only thing that'll hold it, anyway."

"What?" Ally and I asked in unison.

"Pandora's box," Cassie explained reluctantly. "Erebian fire is a terrible thing. It can burn through any substance. It's a horror, so Pandora's box has to hold it."

"Well, I know where _that _is, if you would have told me," Ally declared, looking offended. "Pandora died with it. It's here, in our Museum of the Dead."

"Museum of the..." I trailed off. How did Ally remember all these things? She couldn't count past four, or so she claimed. So how did she know exactly how to get to every site in the Underworld? Maybe people are smart in different ways. Ally is smart enough to at least remember. I'm...well, I'm not sure what I am. If I was smart enough, I wouldn't have made a deal with the devil. But that's another story. Not the time, not the...well, I guess it was the place, but that's not the point. Ally walked right through the doors, breezing past two menacing guards. She greeted them by name and they relaxed immediately. Must be nice to know exactly what you're getting into.

She handed Cass and I each a tourist map, and I unfolded mine the wrong way. Cassie figured hers out instantly, but to me it looked like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo. I just followed Ally and Cass as they led us right to the exhibit. "Wow," Cassie breathed. "This is one of the higher-security exhibits. It's behind Stygian ice." Her eyebrows furrowed. "Wait," she backtracked. "Isn't Stygian ice that ice that shatters if..."

Ally smirked and walked right up to the glass and blew on it. It shattered, and suddenly dozens of alarms were flashing and beeping at us. "Get the box!" Cassie cried, so I picked up the box and we all ran. It was lighter than I thought, and it reflected light so much it almost blinded me. _What do you expect, _I thought. _It's pure gold. _All that glitters is gold.


	6. The Daughter of Poseidon Drowns

**Livvy's POV**

Chapter 6

The Erebian fire was not by any means easy to get. Cass held the box open, while Ally pulled some matches from her back pocket. Wait a second. Ally carries matches around in her back pocket? Well, that explains all those unexplained fires...anyway. Cassie stood there, holding the box, while Ally struck the match. The fire immediately disappeared, going up into smoke. As it did, I called out, "_Houti para friki!" _Greek for "box of horror." I'm not sure where the idea came from, but it worked. When Cass's trembling hands opened the box once more, there was a little flame in there. We all breathed a collective sigh of relief. Finally, something had gone right. I felt like it was the first time in a century that something had worked out for me.

We hurriedly made our way to the Erineyes' loom. It was a sight to see once and never again. It seemed...confusing. How did they keep all of that straight? There were so many colors, and so many twists and turns. It seemed like every thread was entwined with five others. The threads were introduced at random intervals. They were all sorts of lengths. Some went through the whole loom. Some were just little snips of string. It was a bit humbling to see all that. I thought I could tell what my string was. It started as a deep, calm indigo and turned into a steel-hard one, one that couldn't be cut. Ally opened Pandora's box and held a little fire in her hand. I gaped.

"Children of Hades can hold Erebian fire," she explained. She took a little piece of it and rolled it into a shape like a sword point. Then she took a deep breath. "Livvy," she whispered, "call the water."

I shook my head, confused. "I...can't," I admitted. Ally tossed her hair behind her head.

"Fine," she said. She took a Stygian ice whistle from her pocket, like the one my brother used for Mrs. O'Leary, and blew it. Cass and I looked at her, a bit apprehensively. She stared straight ahead.

_Okay, _I thought, _what the heck is going on? _

Suddenly, I saw a form materialize. It was tall, and it was a boy, about nineteen or twenty. He had hair the color of sand, and eyes the color of sapphires. There was a little scar above his forehead. I knew exactly who this was. My second cousin, Luke, son of Hermes. What I didn't expect most, though, was that he ran right up to Ally and embraced her. "Lyssie," he murmured. "I missed you. Did you do what I asked?"

She stepped back and let Luke's arms drop. "Of course," she promised. "I was just about to. I thought you might like to watch." She grinned maliciously in our direction, and snapped her fingers. The flame hovered above the loom, right over a steel string. "I fooled you, didn't I?" she gloated. "You thought I was _so _for your cause, but I was working with Luke the whole time. Now we will renounce the gods together, and bring Mount Olympus down." The fire floated just above the thread, threatening to burn it. Cassie jumped, trying to knock the fire out of her hand, but screamed in pain. Her skin came back coal-black and smoking.

I looked at her. I wished, not for the first time but maybe for the last, that I had never made a bet with a demon. I could have put out that fire. I could have saved us all. But I didn't. Luke laughed at me cruelly. "Oh yes, Daughter of the Sea God," he taunted. "We know your little bet. You can't beat us, can you? Look at your friend's burning hand. Can't you douse it wish water? Can't you help your friend?"

"I have no friends," I defied. Luke looked at me, with frightening malice in his eyes. He chuckled.

"Well, whose fault is that?" he demanded. "It's _yours_. _You _made a deal. You swore on the River Styx if you were made immortal, you would never use your marine powers again. Your father disowned you. Now you can't die...unless, of course, you drown. Tell your friends, Livvy." Luke seemed to be so proud, so amazingly proud to know my deepest, darkest secret. Cassie looked at me with disgust and hatred in her eyes. I wanted to explain, but I couldn't. That was something I could never tell anyone but the people who were part of the bet. I had been so young and foolish. I had wanted power more than anything, wanted to be survive forever more than I wanted to live. I never would have imagined the consequences. Every second of my life, I couldn't die. Every minute, I was still alive. I hated it. I should have died 1,960 years ago, but I hadn't, and I had to live in the agony of bearing a horrible secret.

In my peripheral vision, I spied a little bit of water creeping into the control room. Without thinking, I backed away from it immediately. "Wh-what is that?" I asked.

Luke looked at it. "Oh, that?" he asked casually, as if he didn't know. "We're on good terms with Charon. He sends the River Styx to us, when we need it."

Ally gazed at Luke. Cassie shook her head, full of self-pity and regret and betrayal. "How could you do this, Ally?" she cried. "We've been best friends forever. We stayed up until midnight making prank calls at my house. We passed notes when our teachers weren't looking. We had our hearts break and be sewn back together, together. And now you'll just throw it all away?"

She shook her head and shouted, "You don't understand! I've only known you eight years. I've been alive for two thousand. I've watched Hades be forced to give everything to his brothers. I've watched him slowly become weaker. I've watched him _lose_, every time. This was a way for Daddy to get back at everyone who hurt him."

While this verbal rivalry was going on, I was trying to stay away from the water. It now covered almost the whole floor. I wondered vaguely if I'd be able to climb on the ceiling. Maybe, if I stood on the loom...Nah. It wouldn't hold my weight. It wouldn't hold anything. It was a tangle of string! I couldn't get away from it. The amount of water coming in by the second was increasing quickly. Pretty soon I was standing in about three inches of water. I watched from my wet position as Cassie pushed Ally down. The Erebian fire fell out of her hand and landed in the water, fizzling out. A small wisp of gray smoke drifted up.

Ally stared at her, gawking. "You - you-" She couldn't seem to finish her sentence. In the same movement, Cassie took Pandora's box and threw it through the ceiling. It broke a hole through, but came back down, landing with a _plop! _Water splashed across the front of my shirt, and I cried out. Cassie jumped on the box. Ally tugged on Cass's hand. "Please, Cassie!" she begged. "You don't know what you're doing."

She latched her fingers onto the rough edges of her crude escape hatch. "No," she responded firmly. "You don't." She climbed up, reached back in, grabbed Pandora's box, and left. Cass was taller than all of us, so without the box, we were doomed to drown. So I thought. Ally immediately grabbed Luke's hand and disappeared.

"Ta-ta, Livvy!" she cackled. I was left behind. The water level rose continuously. I dipped my head beneath the water. Finally, I had a chance to do something I'd wanted to do for years: die. I stuck my head under and refused to come up. Normally, I think there's some sort of reflex that disables people from drowning themselves. I did it easily. My lungs felt like they would burst. I tried to breath in water. I panicked a little at the very last second, but other than that I didn't resist. I had wanted to do this forever. The last thing I saw was the distorted view of the loom. Then...

Blackness.


End file.
